MAYOR: VOLUNTARY ANNEXATION ORDERLY

Voluntary annexation paves the way for orderly and efficient growth in Cape Girardeau.

At least this is the way Cape Girardeau Mayor Al Spradling III sees it.

Two voluntary annexation requests are pending before the city of Cape Girardeau.

One involves property on Bloomfield Road, County Road 206 and Wolf Lane -- on the west side of I-55. Another petition seeks to annex property east of Cape Rock Drive and west of Old Sprigg Street Road.

"Voluntary annexation is one of the easier methods, because it doesn't put the city under the gun and isn't haphazard," said Spradling. "When it's voluntary, we're not bound by the Sawyer Act, which requires us to meet the three-year deadline to provide sewer and water lines."

Added Spradling, "The people requesting the extension have indicated that they will pay for the sewer and water lines. The city would then extend the same police and fire department services it provides for the rest of Cape Girardeau."

The city council held a public hearing Monday on the petition to annex the property east of Cape Rock Drive and west of Old Sprigg Street Road.

Since there was no opposition to the petition, the city will proceed with the plan to adopt an ordinance for the annexation in a subsequent city council meeting.

"It is the city staff's recommendation that this annexation is reasonable and necessary to the proper development of the city, and that the city has full capability to provide municipal services to the area," said City Planner Kent Bratton.

But he said it would be difficult to project an approximate date when the property would be fully annexed.

The property belongs to Mary Potashnick Harrison, Clothilda Ann Harrison Brinkopf, Paul W. Brinkopf, Charles R. Harrison and Reginald Basil Harrison.

The city also accepted a petition Monday to annex property on Bloomfield Road, County Road 206 and Wolf Lane -- in the southwest part of the city.

The council will hold a public hearing not less than 14 days and not more than 60 days after the date the petition was received, which was June 1.

The next step will be for the city staff to generate information for the public hearing. The matter does not have to go before the city's Planning and Zoning Commission.

"We'll put together a map of all properties involved and how they relate to each other," said Bratton.

The petition for annexation is from: Joseph K. and Winnie Essmyer, Earl H. and Ruth Ann Norman, Patrick and Cheryl Ann Evans, William G. Evans, Thomas H. and Mary E. Froemsdorf, Ronald A. and Kenedy Ver Vynck, Dennis and Tammy Raddle, Wesley Farrow Jr., Terry G. Farrow, Brian Duane and Elizabeth Kraun Stevens. Paul W. Clark, Joda L. and Charlotte A. Bess, Kenneth G. Schwab, Robert C. and Sharon L. Vandergraaf, James A. Cochrane III and Sara Cochrane and John Paul Heisserer.

"Both of these annexations look like very nice developments," said Spradling. "It's one of the signs that the city is involved in an orderly and planned growth and development phase."

In an unrelated matter, the city council on Monday authorized the city manager to execute a contract with Fronabarger Concreters for construction of Lexington Avenue Arterial, Phase III from Cape Rock Drive to Sprigg Street.

The extension of Lexington from Cape Rock to Sprigg Street is expected to be finished in the spring or summer of 1995.